Redbridge's Families First
programme is set to integrate schools more closely into its child support system, aiming to improve early intervention and safeguarding for children and families.
The initiative, which has been in place for one year, has already shown promising results in streamlining services and providing more consistent support. Schools are identified as a key route for identifying emerging needs. The enhanced front door of the Families First
programme makes it easier for them to direct referrals, simplifying a process that previously required schools to determine the appropriate pathway for a child's needs.
Councillor Leontia Brewer highlighted the importance of this integration, asking how schools are involved and how information is shared. It was explained that Family Help Partnership Coordinators
work closely with schools, attending DSL forums and headteacher meetings. All schools in Redbridge are allocated a coordinator who has a direct point of contact for schools when an early emerging need arises. This collaboration ensures that schools are aware of the referral pathways and can effectively direct families to the appropriate support. The coordinators also log data on the types of needs they manage and in which schools, which is then used to inform planning.
When an early help need first emerges for a child, or a universal need or a single early help need, schools often start to support that child. If the need escalates to multiple needs or targeted early help, it comes through the one front door and is referred in the same way. Previously, schools would have to determine if a child's need was early help, child protection, or something else, and figure out which front door to send it to. Now, they send it to one front door, and the system determines where it needs to go.
The Families First
programme represents a significant reform to social care delivery, aiming to create a seamless pathway for early help and statutory child in need services. The programme's design was informed by learning from serious case reviews of children who had died due to abuse and neglect. These reviews included those for Jasmine Beckford, Tyra Henry, Kimberley Carlile, Victoria Climbié, Peter Connolly, Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, and Star Hobson. Key lessons learned consistently identified failures in inter-agency communication and staff collaboration, inexperience and lack of skills within the workforce (including social workers, health practitioners, police, and education), failure to follow established procedures, and inadequate resources to meet demands.
Early intervention is a cornerstone of the reform, with practical support now available at the first point of contact. In the past year, 7,765 contacts were signposted or diverted from Family Help
teams, and 227 parents received benefits and debt advice. Additionally, 351 parents accessed parenting groups, and 410 contacts progressed directly to the Reach Out Domestic Abuse Service.
The programme has also seen a reduction in staff vacancy rates from 18.3% to 9.5% and a decrease in staff turnover from 28.7% to 13.8%. Financially, savings of £324,000 were identified in the 2025/26 financial year. These savings were achieved through preventing children from entering care, primarily by embedding family-led decision-making and providing support packages around families, reducing the amount previously spent on supporting children in care.
The Families First
reform integrates targeted early help and statutory child in need services into a seamless pathway. The redesigned model includes one lead practitioner who stays with the family throughout their engagement. If the needs change, the family remains with the same practitioner and team, rather than experiencing a step-up, step-down, or hand-off that would require a new assessment and allocation. This approach aims to ensure continuity of care by maintaining the relationship and trust built with the family.
While the programme has made significant strides, ongoing work includes embedding consistent practice, enabling a single workflow in the LCS system, and assuring the tracking of demand, timeliness, outcomes, workforce, and safeguarding quality. The programme is continuing to test changes and sustain them to see if families experience safeguarding quality and long-term outcomes in the desired direction. The strongest interpretation of the impact comes from patterns across demand, flow, safeguarding, and quality indicators, rather than any single measure in isolation. The next phase of the programme involves assuring the tracking of demand, timeliness, outcomes, workforce, and safeguarding quality, and learning from feedback and national developments.
More information on the Children and Young People Committee can be found in the public reports pack for their meeting on 10th September 2026 here.
